From August, NBU will begin withdrawing 500-hryvnia banknotes of 2003-2007 model from circulation

From August, the National Bank will begin withdrawing 500-hryvnia banknotes of the 2003-2007 model from circulation.

This is stated in the message of the NBU, the Ukrainian News agency reports.

500-hryvnia banknotes of the old type will gradually be replaced in circulation by more modern and protected ones.

From August 1, 2024, the National Bank will begin withdrawing from circulation 500-hryvnia banknotes of the 2003–2007 model years to gradually replace them with banknotes of the 2014 model and subsequent years of issue.

However, old-style banknotes will remain a valid means of payment.

Citizens will be able to continue paying with them without restrictions, they do not need to be specially exchanged.

The main purpose of such a decision is to improve the quality of cash in circulation, taking into account the wear and tear of the old-style 500-hryvnia banknotes, which have been in circulation for almost 18 years, in particular, more than the last eight years, at the same time as banknotes of the modern generation.

NBU, together with banks, will gradually withdraw the specified banknotes from cash circulation, in particular:

- banks of Ukraine will not issue such banknotes from cash registers for all types of cash transactions;

- the National Bank will stop supporting bank cash registers with such banknotes.

Once in the banks, old-style 500-hryvnia banknotes will no longer be returned to circulation, but will be withdrawn from circulation and transferred to the National Bank of Ukraine for further counting and disposal.

At the same time, the replacement of old-style 500-hryvnia banknotes with modern ones with a strengthened protection system will not affect citizens' cash settlements, they do not need to take additional measures for exchange.

As the Ukrainian News agency earlier reported, the level of counterfeiting of national currency banknotes in 2023 remained low.

So, according to the results of last year, there were about 2.1 counterfeit banknotes per 1 million pieces of real hryvnia banknotes (according to the results of 2022 - about 2.2 banknotes).